The state Department of Education’s Dec. 18 hearings on a school funding report represented only the start of public discussion of a new education finance system, according to NJSBA.

“The meetings were designed to address the vehicle used to identify the cost of providing a thorough-and-efficient education, which would be one part of a new funding formula; but it is not the proposed formula itself,” explained Edwina M. Lee, executive director.

“Nor will the meetings address prospective state aid figures for 2007-2008.”

NJSBA governmental relations staff monitored hearings at Burlington County Community College and Kean University in Union.

2003 Data The meetings focused on the Report on the Cost of Education, recently released by the education department. However, the data in the report is from 2003.